The Late Minoan II-IIIAi warrior graves at Knossos: the burial assemblages

Author(s): Lucia Alberti

Reviewed work(s):
Source: British School at Athens Studies, Vol. 12, KNOSSOS: PALACE, CITY, STATE (2004), pp.
127-136
Published by: British School at Athens
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40960771 .
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 8
gravesat
The Late MinoanII-IIIAi warrior
Knossos:theburialassemblages
Lucia Alberti
The purposeof thisstudyis to comparethefunerary
assemblages of theLate MinoanII-IIIAi necropoleis
atKnossoswiththosein contemporary orslightlyear-
liertombson theMainland.1The aimis toidentify the
features
intrinsic of theassemblages presenton Crete
in thisphase,and to determine whether thesetombs
areindeedinsomewaysimilartotheMainlandtombs.
HereI shallfocuson theassociationsbetween theitems
in theassemblages, thepotteryin particular,
and shall
touchonlybriefly on thearchitecturalfeatures
of the
tombsthemselves.
THE LATE MINOAN NECROPOLEIS AT
KNOSSOS
The Late Minoannecropoleis at Knossosaresituated
aroundthePalacewithina radiusof 2 km(Hood and
Smyth1981, 13, fig. 3; Alberti 1999, 167, n. 2;
Grammatikaki 1993).Most of themwereestablished
in LM II, somebeingusedonlyforabouttwogenera-
tions,untilLM II orLM IIIAi, othersuntilLM IIIB,
andperhaps a fewuntilthebeginning ofLM IIIC. Some
tombsfromMavroSpilio,Gypsadesand Ailias,how-
ever,werecutin,andhadbeeninusefrom, theMiddle
Minoanperiod.Therearea fewMiddleMinoantombs
in thenecropolis ofMavroSpilio,whichwillbe dealt
withlater.The necropolisof Gypsades(Hood and
Smyth1981. 331), however, containsonlyone MM
tomb(Hood etal 1959,220-4),a^ theothersbelong-
ing to LM III, whileit seemsthatthenecropolisof
Ailiasceasedtobeinuseafter MM HI (HoodandSmyth
1981. 257) andso willnotbe analysedhere.
I shallalso lookat theKatsambasnecropolissitu-
atednearto thepresumedsiteoftheKnossosharbour
becauseitis relativelyclosetothePalace,andthecon-
tentsof thetombshavean important bearingon this
study(Alexiou1967,1970).The recently discovered
tombsin thenearbycoastalarea,however, whichcon-
tainrichassemblages including andweapons,
jewellery
willnotbe examined herebecausetheyhavebeendated
toLM I, andtherefore do notcomewithin thescopeof
thispaper(Muhly1992;Dimopoulou1999),although
theirdiscovery hasconsiderablychangedourframeof
reference.
I shalldiscussonlytheLM II-IIIAi tombswithin
thesenecropoleis - about50 outofa totalofsome
170
intheKnossosarea- omitting themonumental tombs,
whichproblems ofdating, and
plundering scarcity make
unsuitable forthiscomparison. Of these50,1shalltake
a morehomogeneous groupof 30 whichdisplayevi-
denceofsimilar burialpractices.The groupis alsolim-
itedbythenecessity toincludeonlytombswhichhave
a similar
chronology, typeofstructure andstateofcon-
servationandexcavation. Thatthereareonly30 should
notcomeas a surprise. We mustnotforget that,apart
fromtheZaferPapouracemetery (Hood and Smyth
1981. 36) of 100tombs,50 ofwhichwerefoundcom-
pletelyempty, theKnossiannecropoleis consistofvery
smallgroupsof tombs(fourin Sellopoulo,sevenin
Isopata,etc.),andsomescattered singletombs,likethe
Acropolistomb(Hood and Smyth1981.149).In addi-
tion,mostofthemhavebeenplundered, andmostwere
excavated in theearly1900s.
The Isopatacemetery hasa totalofeighttombs(in-
cludingthetwochambers inT 1andtheso called"Iso-
latedDeposit",ifit is a tomb),sevenofwhichbelong
toLM II-IIIAi (TABLE8.5). Sellopoulohastwooutof
four,AyiosIoannistwo(Hood anddeJong1952;Hood
1956),theVenizeleio four.
Andoutofa totalof21tombs,
Gypsadeshas onlytwo,to whichtwootherscan per-
hapsbe added,fromtheperiodbetweenLM IIIAi and
IIIA2. ZaferPapourais a specialcase:almostall ofthe
50tombswhichwerenotfoundcompletely empty could
be datedto LM IIIA2-IIIB, and onlya fewseemedto
datebacktothepreviousperiod;butresearch byEleni
Hatzaki, whom I thankfor thispersonal communica-
tion,seemstoindicateanearlierdate,thatis LM IIIAi .
Then we havetheisolatedtombdiscoveredbyEvans
ontheAcropolis, theonepublished byHutchinson, and
theKatsambascemetery consisting ofsixLM II-IIIAi
tombsoutofthetotalofeight.
1 I wishto thanktheBritishSchool at Athens,who made it pos-
sible forme to presentmy researchon this occasion and al-
lowed me to study,in particular,the Mavro Spilio cemetery.
Special thanksalso go to those who, in our discussions over
thepast fewyears,have givenme preciousadvice and suggest-
ions, and in particularClaudia Rutherford,who revised the
English textwithgreatcompetenceand dedication.
128 LUCIAALBERTI

MIDDLE MINOAN BURIAL PRACTICES AND whichcontrasts withtheearlierMinoantradition of

THE LM II-IIIA1 TOMBS tombswithmultipledepositionsdatingback to the
MiddleMinoannecropoleis and theMesaratholoi.In
Beforewe look in detailat the assemblagesin these the Middle Minoan tombs at Knossosall show
fact,
tombs,we shouldfirst brieflydiscussthearchitectural tracesofre-useover
manygenerations, exceptfora few
differences whichdistinguish theLM II-HIAi tombs to
rareexamplessubject specificsituations, suchas the
fromthosethatprecededthem.The MavroSpilione-
collapseduringMM HI ofthe vault of Mavro SpilioT.
cropolis(Hood and Smyth1981. 251) servesas a good 6, whichsealedoffthecontents (Forsdyke1927,259).
illustration ofthecontrast, as itwasfirst cutbeforethe An exacttallyof thedepositions is lackingforMavro
Late Minoanperiod(Forsdyke1927). The materials its multi-chamber tombsundoubtedly
- those Spilio, although
databletoLM II-HIAi arenotverynumerous contained as is clearfromtheburialassemblages,
many,
fromLM IIIA2-IHB certainly prevail.Unfortunately, thenumberof larnakesand thefewremainsof skel-
someinteresting LM II- IIIAi vases,notpublishedby etonsrecordedat thetimeof theexcavation (Charles
Forsdyke andnowintheStratigraphical Museum,can- 1965, 85-94). Ailias,too,is an interesting example:in
notbe ascribedtoanytombatpresent. Howeveratleast one tombmorethan50 skeletons werefound,manyof
fourtombswerein use in LM II-HIAi, and fouroth- theminjarsorlarnakes (CookandBoardman 1954,166),
erseitherattheendofLM IIIAi oratthebeginning of or heapedup almostas if to makepartsof thetomb
LM IIIA2. looklikeossuaries, as in thesmallantechambers ofthe
Analysisof thematerial, whichis stillin progress, Mesaratholoi.
indicates thatthemulti-chamber tombsdiscovered here theappearanceofthenew
to theMiddle Minoan and were often Againstthisbackground,
belong period, Knossiannecropoleisprovidesa striking contrastas
re-used.The single-chamber tomb,however, withits mostof thetombscontainonlyone deposition,and
perpendicular dromosoftencharacterised by inward hardlyanyof themhas morethanfourdepositions of
slopingwalls, started to appear at Mavro Spilioonlyat thesamedate.Thisnewprocedure hasbeeninterpreted
thebeginning ofLM II, or perhapsat theendofLM
bysomescholarsas evidenceof an actualMycenaean
IB. atKnossosfromthisperiod.According tothis
The datingof themulti-chamber tombtypeto the presence
theory, either Mycenaeans had taken control of the Pal-
MiddleMinoanperiodis also confirmed by theMM ace or the rulers at Knossos had Mycenaean mercenar-
II- III assemblages intheAiliasnecropolis,2 andbythe iesintheirservice(Pophametal. 1974,255-7).Others
newlydiscoveredtombsat Poros.It seems,therefore, haveinterpreted thesenewburialpracticesas merely
thatthemulti-chamber tombswitha commonentrance the Mainland customs(Niemeier1985,
adoptionof
areofMinoanorigin.Therearetombsofthesametype
255)-
foundon Kytheradated to LM I (Coldstreamand I am notgoingto arguehereforor againsteitherof
Huxley1972),but it is important to makeit clearat istolookobjectively
theseinterpretations. Myintention
thispointthatthe tombson Cyprus,thatare some- at theassemblages, and particularly at theassociations
timesmentioned as a usefulcomparison, areonlyap- betweenobjectsin theCretantombs,and to compare
parently similar,and areactuallystructurally verydif- theresultswiththeirMainlandcounterparts.
ferent (Pini 1968,figs.32-3).
The fewmulti-chamber tombsfoundon theMain-
landhavecompletely differentfeatures from theMinoan THE KNOSSIAN BURIAL ASSEMBLAGES
tombs, andtheirshapecannotoriginate from Crete.The We can dividethe Knossiantombsintotwo groups
chamberstendto havea quite regularquadrangular basedon their and chronology. The cem-
assemblages
shape,andthesecondchamber is alwaysperpendicular eterieswithtombs
dating toLM IIIAi andcontinuing
totheaxisofthefirst. Evenwhentherearethreecham- intothe subsequentperiods,such as Gypsadesand
berswitha singledromosanda largecentralchamber, ZaferPapoura,containcompletely different
probably
theyaresituatedaxiallyandperpendicularly (Niemeier gravegoodswithdifferent associations fromwhatwe
1985,206-7,fig-69). In themulti-chamber tombson findinnecropoleis thatstarted inLM II andcontinued
Crete,however, thechambersalmostlooklikeartifi- untilLM HIA2atlatest, suchas KatsambasandIsopata.
ciallyenlargednaturalcaves:theyhavean irregular The twogroupscan be distinguished mostclearlyby
shape,buttendtobe roundandradiatefromtheante- thepottery shapes. The later group of tombs is charac-
chamberor theentrance. The dromosis usuallyvery terisedby typesof vases such as stirrupjars,side-
short(Forsdyke1927,256,fig.8, 265,fig.19).
In additionto the newsinglechambertombs,an- spoutedjars,shallowcups,spoutedcups,withnewas-
sociations betweenthem,whiletypessuchas alabastra
otherpossiblenew elementis the appearancein the
necropoleis at Knossos,thoughprobablyin a slightly
laterphase,ofshaftandpitgraves, albeitfarfewer than
thechambertombs. 2 I should liketo thankSinclair Hood forgivingme access to all
Thesenewtypesoftombsarecharacterised bya low the documentationconcerningthe Ailias necropolis and for
numberof depositions, usually from one to three - his kindnessin discussingit withme.
 THE LA TE MINOAN II-IIIAl WARRIORGRAVES A T KN OSSOS 129

and piriform jars,whichmarktheearliernecropoleis, objects,whichoccuronlyonce in themanyKnossian

arelesscommon. tombs),I haveselectedtheitemswhichoccurmostfre-
I shallnotdiscussthelaternecropoleis cutfromthe quently. In fact,froma methodological pointofview,it
endofLM HIA1,butconsiderinmoredepththegroup wasnecessary firstofall tocategoriseas one typevases
oftombswhichbelongexclusively to LM II-IIIAi. A oftengivendifferent names,buthavinga similarfunc-
goodexampleof thistypeof burialassemblageis the tion.For examplea set of drinking vessels(goblets,
tombexcavated byHutchinson (1956;Hood andSmyth champagne glasses,stemmed cups)hasbeendefinedas
1981. 324), whichis one of therichestdiscoveredat kylikes.The sameappliesto piriform jars,whichin-
Knossos,andwhichcontainsmanytypesofitemsalso cludethree-handled jarsandPalaceStylejars.In addi-
foundinotherassemblages. It hasa largegroupofves- tion,all thedifferent typesof jugs havebeencatego-
sels,includinga piriform jar,somejugs and a kylix, risedas one singlegroup.
twosquatalabastra,a tallalabastron, stonevases,the
cup madeof goldand silverwhichgavethetombits
name,a pin,a smallcuirass-shaped stonevase and a
sword.The tablelistingtheitems(TABLE8.1) shows
thelargenumberofclayvessels,an elementnotalways Table 8.1: Knossos LM II-IIIAi warrior
present in Knossiantombs,andin particular thepres- graves:Hutchinson'sTomb assemblage.
enceofthepiriform jar,alabastra, and
kylix jugs,four
types of vesselsoftenassociated with braziersin other
tombs.This is obviouslyone of the many"warrior
HUTCHINSON'S TOMB
graves"fromthisperiod.The firstpersonto use the
termwasSinclairHood in the1950s,as he mentioned Tomb Chamber
duringtheConference. Althoughthisdefinition may Depositions 2/3
bemisleading, ithasnowbecometraditional, as ithigh- POTTERY
lightsin a phrasetheparticular importance givento Piriform
theweaponsin thewarrior Jar
gravesfromtheendofthe Alabastron
LM IB period,and thesameappliesto bronzeitems,
Kylix
especiallyvases,inthe"graveswithbronzes".Wemust
Jug
alwayskeepin mind,however, thatit is merelya defi- Brazier
nitionofconvenience. In factinall periods,therewere
Cup
probablywarriorsin Aegeansocietyor people who Othertypes
mighthavewantedtobe buriedas such,witha greater
orlesserdegreeofemphasis on themilitary. Thisseems BRONZES
to be borneoutbytheassemblages withweaponsand Sword
jewellery recentlyfoundin Porosand thedistribution Dagger
of weaponsin AyiaTriada and PhaistosfromEarly Spearhead
Minoanto Late Minoan(La RosaandMilitello1999). Arrowheads
Knife
Razor
METHODOLOGY Otherweapons
Vase
ForthisanalysisI havelaidoutall theitemsin a table, Otherbronzes
as hasalreadybeendoneforthistypeoftomb(Kilian-
Dirlmeier1985,1988;PoyatoHolgado and Vasquez JEWELLERY
Beads
Hoys 1996)and as is a commonmethodin studiesof
ItalianBronze Age archaeology. Ring
Kilian-Dirlmeier's Pin
studygaveparticular emphasistotheweaponsandjew- Seal
elleryin theassemblages in orderto tryto definethe
Kylix
socialstatusof thedead person.Withthesamepur-
pose,PoyatoHolgadoandVasquezHoysentered allthe STONE VASES
elements of thetombs- tombshape,items,number Bowl
ofdepositions, date- intoa database,whichdemon- Jar
stratedthehighvariability oftheassemblages. Alabastron
Herewecansee thatothertypesofitemsfurnish us Othertypes
withmoreinformation, in particular
thepottery vases
whichuntilnowhavenotbeengivenas muchattention TRACES of WOOD
as themorevaluableobjects.As thevariability of ob- Bier/Larnax
Box
jectsin theassemblagesis veryhigh,especially
forthe
pottery (indeedwe oftenhaveshapesofvase,or other
130 LUCIA ALBERTI

THE ASSEMBLAGES forthe weapons,we can see thatthe occurrenceof im-

I shalladdressin particularthetablesreferringto some
In
of the more significantnecropoleis. all, fivetombs
were discoveredat the Venizeleio (Hood and Smyth
1981. 71), fourof whichdated to LM II-HIAi (TABLE
8.2). There are threesingle-chambertombswithper-
pendicular dromos, and one shafttomb. Two of the
chambertombs contain two burials each. In this ne-
cropolis thereis quite a large numberof clay vessels,
togetherwithmainlyweapons,bronze itemsand seals.
elementis
But, of all thematerials,themostsignificant
the pottery.In factthe frequencyof alabastra,associ-
ated with piriformjars, kylikes,jugs and braziers,is
notable.Other typesof vessels are less numerous.As
portantpieces, like the sword,is associated witha low
quantityof pottery,and this,too, is in common with
many of the Knossian tombs - the large groups of
bronzesin general,and mostimportantly theweapons,
are associatedwithfewclay vases. It is not certainthat
the traces of wood found here come frombiers or
larnakes;theycould be fromsmallboxes or containers.
If we look at the Katsambas cemetery(TABLE 8.3),
wheresix out of eighttombsbelong to LM II-IIIAi,
thepictureis completelydifferent (Alexiou 1967, 1970).
There are practicallyno weapons, unless we want to
consider the two knivesfound in Tombs B and E as
such. The bronzes, too, are far fromnumerous,par-
ticularlycomparedto otherKnossian tombs.Here the

Table 8.2: Venizeleio assemblages.

VENIZELEIO T. 1 T. 2 T. 3 T. 5
Tomb Chamber Shaft Chamber Chamber
Depositions 2 1 2 1?

POTTERY
PiriformJar
Alabastron
Kylix
Jug
Brazier
Cup
Othertypes

BRONZES
Sword
Dagger
Spearhead
Arrowheads
Knife
Razor
Otherweapons
Vase
Otherbronzes

JEWELLERY
Beads
Ring
Othertypes
Seal
Vase

STONE VASES
Bowl
Jar
Alabastron
Othertypes schistfrag.

TRACES of WOOD
Bier/Larnax ?
Box (ivoryfrag.)
 THE LATE MINOANII-IIIAl WARRIOR
GRAVESAT KNOSSOS 13 1

Table 8.3: Katsambas assemblages.

KATSAMBAS T. A T. B T. T T. A T. E T. Z
Tomb Chamber Chamber Chamber Chamber Chamber Chamber
Depositions 61 1222

POTTERY
PiriformJar
Alabastron
Kylix
Jug
Brazier
Cup
Othertypes *

BRONZES
Sword
Dagger
Spearhead
Arrowheads
Knife
Razor
Otherweapons
Vase
Otherbronzes

JEWELLERY
Beads
Ring
Othertypes #
Seal
Vase

STONE VASES
Bowl
Jar
Alabastron
Othertypes obsidianfrag.

TRACES of WOOD
Bier/Larnax #9 ##
Box
(ivoryfrag.)

pottery represents themajority oftheitems,and in at in the 1970s,but havenotbeen published.Fromthe

leastfourcasesoutof six,we havetheclassicassocia-
tionbetween piriform jars,alabastra
and/orkylikesand
jugs.In Katsambas, itis importanttonotethetracesof
woodfrombiersor larnakesin all thetombs.We can
safelysaythisbecausea rectangular bed-sizedprintwas
discovered there.In at leastone case,itwasnotedthat
thewoodmusthavebeenpaintedblue.The tracesof
woodwerenotfoundin all Knossiantombs.This may
be duetothefactthatthetraceswerenotnoticedatthe
beginning ofthe1900s,orthattheyhadnotbeenpre-
served,orperhapssometombsdid notcontainthem.
The necropolis ofSellopoulohasfourtombs(Hood
andSmyth1981.28-9). Tombs1 and2 wereexcavated
briefnotesin Archaeological Reportsthe two tombs,
whichwerefoundplundered,belongto the second
groupdatedto LM IIIA2 ( Hood 1958,24-5). Tombs
3 and4, however,whichhavebeenfullypublished, are
LM II-IIIAi (Pophametal 1974;TABLE8.4). T. 3 was
foundpartlyplundered, whileT. 4 wasintactandcon-
tainedthreeseparatedepositions,
eachofwhichhadits
ownassemblage. Bothtombsarecharacterised
bya very
richandunusualsetofbronzeitems,andin particular
bya veryhighnumberofbronzevasesin comparison
to otherKnossiantombs,whichveryrarelycontained
so greatan accumulation of themetal.We mustnot
forget, thata veryhighpercentage
however, of tombs
132 LUCIA ALBERTI

Table 8.4: Sellopoulo assemblages.

SELLOPOULO T. 3 T. 4 (I) T. 4 (II) T. 4 (III)

Tomb Chamber Chamber

Depositions ? 1 11

POTTERY
Piriformjar
Alabastron
Kylix ( ?)
Jug
Brazier
Cup ( ?)
Othertypes

BRONZES
Sword
Dagger
Spearhead
Arrowheads
Knife
Razor
Otherweapons
Vase
Otherbronzes

JEWELLERY
Beads
Ring
Othertypes
Seal
Vase

STONE VASES
Bowl
Jar
Alabastron
Othertypes

TRACES of WOOD
Bier/Larnax
Box

at Knossos werefoundplundered.The potteryvessels shapes, i.e. piriformjars, alabastraand kylikes,along

are not verynumerous,but belong to thetypesconsid-
ered characteristicof this group: T. 3 contained two
piriformjars,fourkylikesand a jug; depositionI in T
4 had a jug, a shallowbowl, a small piriformjar,a kylix
and, probably,a conical cup and others two kylikes;
depositionsII and III containedonlyone clayvase each.
The Isopata necropolis (Evans 1914; Hood and
Smyth198 1. 1) displaysthesame characteristics, ifin a
less homogeneousway (TABLE 8.5). Only fiveout of
seven tombscontainone or more of the threeceramic
withothertypeswhichare hardlyeverpresentin other
Knossian assemblages.The most significanttomb of
thegroup,however,theTomb oftheDouble Axes,con-
tains a classic assemblage,withmanyceramic vessels,
amongwhichare fourpiriform jars,one alabastron,one
kylix, three jugs, one brazier and one "ritual" goblet
with lid, besides weapons, jewellery and a steatite
rhyton.This tombis likelyto have belonged to a high
rankingperson, to judge fromits monumentalarchi-
tecture:it had been cut out of the rock and had traces
 GRAVESAT KNOSSOS
THE LATEMINOANII-IIIAl WARRIOR 133

Table 8.5:Isopataassemblages.

ISOPATA Isolated T. 1 T. iA T. 2 T. 3 T. 4 T. 5 T. 6
Deposit (Double
Axes)

Tomb ? Chamber Chamber Chamber Chamber Chamber Chamber Chamber

Depositions ? ? ? i ? ? i "2"

POTTERY
Piriformjar
Alabastron
Kylix
Jug
Brazier
Cup
Othertypes

BRONZES
Sword
Dagger
Spearhead
Arrowheads
Knife
Razor
Otherweapons
Vase
Otherbronzes

JEWELLERY
Beads #
Ring
Othertypes #
Seal #
Vase

STONE VASES
Bowl
Jar
Alabastron
Othertypes

TRACES of WOOD
Bier/Larnax
Box

ofa vault,as wellas a centralpillar,benchesanda dou- letswithfigureofeightshapedhandles.The onlypos-

bleaxe shapedcistdugin thefloor.Thereweremany
symbolswhichprobably havereligiousor cultsignifi-
cance:thedoubleaxe(besidestheshapeofthecist,three
bronzedoubleaxes werefound),thepillarwithcol-
umninrelief, anda strangevesselperhapsusedinritu-
als,as itsformdoes notseemto suggestanypractical
use.
T. 5 is also highlysignificant,
to judgefromitsex-
traordinary finds:twoverylargetin-covered alabastra,
a jug(alsowithtin),a brazierandfourpolychrome gob-
sible comparison to the goblets might be some
undecorated vasesfoundin thePalaceofZakros(HM
!3927>x3993-8,14006-7).Although theyhavethesame
profileandidentical8-shapedhandles,theyalsohavea
sortof inner"strainer"witha largecentralholesur-
roundedbyslightly smallerholesjustbelowtherim,as
insomemodernflower vases.Thistombhadbeenplun-
dered,too,and apartfromthepottery onlya simple
bronzeringwas found.If we believethatthesevases
weremeant,atthetimeofthefuneral, tolooklikemetal
134 LUCIAALBERTI

vases- silveror evengolddependingon themelting madea selectionalongthesamelinesfromthetombs

processused (Gillis 1990, 28)3 - theirpresenceis at Athens.
As
highlysuggestive. thegoblets are of Minoan origin The fourtombsof Prosymna containmanyburials
in shapeand decoration, whilethealabastrabelongto and,therefore, a highnumberof vessels. In theAthens
theceramictradition deriving fromthemainland,we tombs,however, apartfromT. 7, thenumberofburials
haveinT. 5 anassemblage intermediate between Minoan is slightly lower.Fromtombswithand withoutweap-
and Mycenaeanburialcustoms.The assemblage from ons,themoststriking thingwe noticeis thatthereis
T. 3 includesonlyone clayvase- an alabastron; T. 4 thesameassociation ofpottery typesas atKnossos,that
contained twopiriform jarsandthreealabastra;andT. is, piriform jars,alabastra,kylikes, jugs and drinking
6 onealabastron, a doublevaseandfragments ofa poly- vessels.
chromevase.Heretoo,therefore, although theIsopata As we haveseen in thevariousassemblagesat the
cemetery is distinctly unusual,themostcommonves- Knossiancemeteries, thereare differences between
selsareonceagainpiriform jars,alabastraandbraziers, Prosymna andAthens,too,likethemarkedprevalence
whilsttheleastcommonare kylikes. Accordingly, we ofcupsoverkylikes atProsymna, versusthealmostto-
can statethat,despitesome differences, theLM II- tal absenceof cups at Athens.There are also differ-
III A1 necropoleis at Knossosarecharacterised bysin- encesbetweenthesecemeteries and theCretanassem-
gle-chamber tombs, all of which contain assemblages blages. The total absence of braziers, forexampleis
inwhichthereis a strongassociation betweenpiriform highlysignificant, as theyarea typicalMinoanfeature
jars,alabastraandkylikes, withtheoccasionaladdition present inCretanburialsprevioustotheLM II period.
ofbraziersand jugs. Whatis alsolackingin theMainlandtombsis tracesof
wood(exceptforT. 40 at Athens),butthismightsim-
plybe theresultof bad preservation or hastyexcava-
THE LH II-IIIA1 BURIAL ASSEMBLAGES ON tion.Stonevasesarealsolesscommon. Butdespitethese
THE MAINLAND differences and thepresenceof othervase shapeson
theMainland,themajority ofthevesselsin eachtomb
Atthispointletus trytomakea comparison withother
belongs to our main the
types: piriform jars,alabastra,
necropoleis andburialcustoms.As faras weknow,not totheassemblages
kylikes andjugsthatarefundamental
manytombshavebeenfoundbelonging to thisperiod
oftheLM II-HIAi necropoleis at Knossos.
onCrete.It is,therefore, necessary torefer totheMain-
land cemeteries, thosewithwhichcomparisons were
madeatthetimeofdiscovery ofthefirst warrior graves. CONCLUSION
To simplify comparisons, I use the same systemas and chrono-
with tables to illustratethe burial I havetriedto emphasisethestructural
above, assemblages. Minoan andLate
Here too,we are dealingwithmostlysinglechamber logical differences between the Middle
tombswithperpendicular dromosand inwardsloping Minoan tombs: the changes from multiple chambers to
and from to one
walls,as atKnossos.In TABLE8.6,1haveselectedtombs singlechambers, multipledepositions
intheassemblages
fromthe necropoleis of Athens and Prosymna tofourpertomb,andthedifferences
(Immerwahr 1971;Biegen 1937),mostof whichare
in the same two periods,especially amongtheceramic
datedto thesameperiodas theKnossiancemeteries, items. In fact,despite emphasisgiveninthepastto
the
and a fewto slightly earlier.For clarity,and as other weapons thewarrior
in graves,themethodI haveused
studies,mentioned above,havedealtspecifically with of focussing groupsof vaseshapesoccuringin the
on
themorepreciousitems,onlythepresenceor lackof tombs seemstogivegreater results.Wecanseethatthe
armsor jewellery willbe indicatedhere,omitting de- most common vessel types at Knossos associatedwith
tails(forwhichsee Kilian-Dirlmeier 1985,1988).This preciousobjects are the same types thosefoundin
as
is onlya sample,as assemblages of thistypeareactu- Mainland cemeteries, where theywereinuseinthesame
period, if not slightly earlier,andweremuchmorewide-
allyverycommonon theMainland.Theycan also be in must notforget, that
spread than Crete. We however,
found,forexample,in thechambertombsofMycenae from the
and Dendra,in Attica,and elsewhere(Alberti1999, the Knossian tombs contain some items purely
Minoantradition, likebraziers,or typescommonto
172-3)-
The Prosymna hasmanytombsdatingover bothMinoansand Mycenaeans.Neithermustwe for-
cemetery
a broadperiodanddispersed ingroupsovera largearea. getthemanyotherchangesthattookplaceat Knossos
Therefore, thestateinwhichtheywerediscovered, their andin theAegeanin thisperiod.
chronology and ourabilityto identify theassemblages
insideeachtomb,areveryvaried.ForthisreasonI have
selectedhereonlya fewexampleswhich,fromthepoint 3 At presentwe can say thattin-coveredvases firstappeared in
ofviewofdatingandpreservation, canprovidea more Knossian cemeteriesin MM III/LM I, withone conical cup
meaningful comparison, eventhough moreassemblages in Mavro Spilio T. 9 - in otherwords,beforetheyappeared
withsimilar featureswerefoundinthiscemetery. I have on the Mainland.
 777 7 MINOANII-IIIA1 WARRIOR
GRAVESA T KNOSSOS 13 5

< u

" J^
i 2 : : : :

s
sO

::::

i j* jiji i 5:
M .g #
-si-::: : : :
< 6 5

I - 5I 5: 5 ! :
*I y
I

S * * s
I J* MM
8
%
3
g eu u

g
S

'S
'S
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s
00

l! UHJtali Mil lulu U ih

w
136 LUCIAALBERTI
So, althoughwe are not yetable to answerthe ques-
tionofwhowas buriedin thewarriorgravesofKnossos,
we are able to say thatthe similaritiesbetweenMain-
land and Knossian cemeteriesareundeniablyclose. Not
only do the Cretan tombs display typicallyMainland
assemblagesbut theyare also cut accordingto Main-
land traditionwhich,froma culturalpoint of view,is
veryimportant.Even iftheseburialpracticesaremerely
"imported" fromthe Mainland withoutsome sort of
Mycenaeaninfluxintothe area,we mustassume thata
significantreligiousand culturalupheavaltookplace in
the Minoan World.
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